Thursday 22 November 2018

Come see what's inside my brain... Dublin city centre art exhibition

Okay, that may be the longest post heading I've ever tried! How to say: 'Come see an exhibition!", then say, 'Hey, it's my first and I am so excited about it!' and then give all the details including the reason I'm so excited?

And here it is: this exhibition is the first show by an artists and illustrators collective founded this year. There are 24 of us in the collective now, and such talent I have to pinch myself when I walk around and see what everyone else is producing. Some have been working as artists, graphic designers and art teachers but others are pursuing an interest they've had to keep - so far - as a sideline.

All of us want to illustrate children's books.

So on Dec 1st and 2nd in a gallery in Dublin's city centre, we will each hang two A4 originals, all affordable because we have covered the gallery costs ourselves and want to see our work in happy homes. But we will also be selling prints, cards, books and more at our pop-up shop; perfect gifts for Christmas - especially if you have to post pressies overseas! We have also produced a calendar full of our art on the theme of Home, all proceeds going to the Simon Community.

So:
The theme is: 'A Few of my Favourite Things..."
The place: Studio 10, 10 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2;
The time: 10am-7pm
The date: December 1st and 2nd.

To whet your appetite, here are some of my own - if this is what's inside your brain, as some people maintain art is, mine is a strange place to be!!






Please pop in if you're in town and say hello - we're all taking turns to man the gallery in twos and threes and we love to talk!








Tuesday 6 November 2018

Playing Devil's Advocate... and advocating for diversity

Two events this month I'd love to share: 
1. I'm giving a workshop on screenwriting (Devils' Advocate) Westport, Co. Mayo for the wonderful Rolling Sun Book Festival. It's on Saturday the 17th from 11.30 in the Westport Town Hall Theatre. Free to come along but you probably need to book. 

2. I'm thrilled to be a guest speaker in the upcoming Content London Conference in London run by C21Media. It's an amazing distillation of talent and interesting events (four conferences under one umbrella) and as the creator of Punky (2011, 2014), I'll be talking as part of a panel on 'Representing Diversity in Children's TV' at the Kids Content Futures Conference on November 30th from 12.40am. The event will be moderated by Lindsay Watson, animation producer, kids & family, Canuk Productions.

Really excited about taking part in this discussion. Diversity is still under-represented in children’s TV, both on screen and off, but while the situation is improving since I first dreamt up Punky (back in 2008), we need to know that broadcasters are working to improve things even faster. That means including stories from all sections of our community; celebrating difference. It's what TV can do so well, when it puts its mind to it!

As such, this panel has been gathered to answer questions such as how are broadcasters bringing the voices of the differently abled of our society, as well as women, BAME, LGBTQI+ to the industry and what are the barriers to further progress? (And, hopefully, how do we break through those barriers?)

The other panelists are David Levine, VP Programming, production and strategic development, Disney Channels EMEA, Darren Nartey, Programme Acquisitions Exec ITV and Particia Hidalgo, Chief Content Officer, Turner EMEA and International Kids Strategy.
You can find the full agenda for the day here. And if you are there, be sure to say hello!





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